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John Kaos
John Kaos (real name: Jonathan McMillian) is an American Professional Wrestler from Dallas, Texas currently working for Atlas Sports' Hardcore Professional Wrestling Federation as their reigning Television Champion. He has also worked for Thad Inc. and other organizations within Atlas Sports like Big East Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Alliance. The Beginning Towards the beginning of John's career in 1997, he worked for an Arizona-based promotion called the Extreme Championship Wrestling Federation, he wrestled under the name "Mossimo," a name based on the clothing brand at the time and a character based on a street/hip-hop influence. During his time in the promotion, he went on to become Heavyweight Champion and a run as half of the Tag Team Champions, along with other championships, to leave as the "most decorated champion in company history," although none of the reigns with any title were able to stand-out in the end. Afterwards, Kaos migrated and altered the Mossimo gimmick into one based upon the Insane Clown Posse, and took on the name "Milenko" after the group's album with a similar title, and again as "Michael Romeo," a character based to be a suave ladies' man. Neither of the gimmicks, nor the "Mossimo" character, were really gaining any acceptance anywhere. It was also this time that the moniker "Johnny Kaos" was first used, but after the promotion where it debuted abruptly shut down, the name and character were put on the backburner. Kaos' next stop was the Ohio territory, working the independents and coming across two men who he would form a trio with: Shifty Bradley and R. B. Bradley. Now going under the name "Epic Bradley," the three formed what would be referred to as the "Bradley Factgime," a comical take on the idea of "Factions" and "Regimes" being popular in wrestling and what would start a long-going trend of being an overall satire of everything else in wrestling. The three portrayed themselves as the youth and future of wrestling, each utilizing a different style (R.B. with high flying, Epic with ground and technical, Shifty with brawling and hardcore) to compliment the group as having an answer to any opposition. The overall attitude of the group was a cockiness that reflected the satire. By 1998, the group was starting to gain a lot of attention and found their first short-term home promotion. DXF and all incarnations The Degeneration Xtreme Federation, which later went by a number of different names, began and employeed the Bradley Factgime as one of their star acts. While this also took place, John was also in a relationship with the promotion's owner/booker at the time, who then also pushed him into the main event picture. More times than not, John's opposition would be Shifty as the two had a number of feuds revolving around the World Heavyweight Championship. In one of the final scenarios of the promotion's on-again/off-again run, the two managed to pin one another at the same time and thereby was announces as the Co-World Heavyweight Champions. It was then decided after one of the shut downs to try and move up in their careers as they applied for Thad Inc.'s Rhydin Championship Wrestling Federation, RCWF for short. RCWF The two largest organizations at the time were Thad Inc., which backed RCWF, and Atlas Sports, which backed HPWF. Upon deciding to join RCWF, John did away with the "Epic Bradley" name and re-adopted "Johnny Kaos," which really had no change to the character other than the name. After his debut, which happened to be a lose, Kaos fell mostly in the large mid-card and evetually fighting towards the Television Championship. Soon after, the Bradley Brothers of Shifty and R. B. joined the organization to team up with John once again, but the trio dropped the name "The Bradley Factgime" as well for the name "Team We Own You," or "Team WOY" and "WOY" for the shorthand. While their attitudes did not go over well at first, their in-ring performances could not be denied as they were considered "different." The going trend of matches in RCWF were usually violent, weapon-filled and hardcore all around, whereas Kaos considered himself a technical wrestler who utilized different holds to ground the opponent and isolate body parts. This went to the point where opponents would not sell for John, and Kaos retaliated by making his moves far more complex to the point people could not legitimately escape without Kaos breaking it himself (i.e. the House of Whorers). There was also a backstage political war developing between established tag teams like Roz and Dan Shoryu against the Bradley Brothers, who moved up the ladder quickly. The first big blow from Team We Own You came in the fall of 2001, where after R. B. Bradley was side-lined with an injury, the group introduced "SuperStar" Matt Villas. The duo, which gained even more credibility as a team, captured the RCWF World Tag Team Championship. Also during this time, Kaos had been working as a low-level heel was put into a match where he teamed with federation owner, Thaddius, against Simon Dope where if Dope were to win the handicap match would then be against Gregg Martin for the vacant RCWF World Heavyweight Title at Highway to Hell 3 (the title was vacated after a number of older RCWF stars left the company after a dispute with Thaddius over operations). Kaos managed to defeat Dope himself, then challenged Thaddius' ruling over who the rightful opponent for Gregg Martin was. The match restarted and John eventually came out the winner after utilizing a hammerlock submission. Along with the victory, the match itself established Kaos as a premiere babyface of the organization. At Highway to Hell 3, John Kaos defeated Gregg Martin to become the World Heavyweight Champion, but after the match was finished was interrupted by one of the returning RCWF Stars in Lunar, who claimed John had not won the title. The result was Kaos walking out with the belt after not knowing of the planned idea. While there was no definite answer as to why the after-match situation took place, Kaos regardless went on to defend the title against Thaddius in a series of matches, one of which was the first and only Trailer Park Match. The idea was from Thaddius, a native of Oklahoma, felt John was nothing more than Texas Trailer Park Trash and not a Technician. Therefore, the two fought in a double decker trailer set up next to the wrestling ring where Kaos eventually defeated Thaddius one last time in a match that included the RCWF Owner being driven from the second level down into the first, the Champion being thrown from the top of the trailer into the ring, and a return of RCWF's Krow to lay out Thaddius in the closing moments of the match. After the feud, John held the championship until December where he finally lost it to Simon Dope. A week later, RCWF was closed for a hiatus, which ended in January 2002. At the returning Royal Rumble event, John was entered into the battle and also quickly eliminated in under a minute by an unknown, a joke set up by Thaddius that was not well received by Team We Own You. By this time, John had left the faction from an on-air perspective but was still very much apart of the "clique" backstage with Shifty, Villas and the newest member, Michael Crowe, who was from the Ohio territory much like the other four WOY members. Kaos in the meantime began a team with Simon Dope which was looked at as sort of wrestling's "Odd Couple," as John was looked at as the most technically sound of all on the roster, and Simon was deemed the most violent and hardcore of the new era. The biggest incident involving the two came from a six man tag, where Dope and Kaos isolated Dan Shoryu and proceeded to stick and light a bottle rock in his butt. The team, which throughout their run never really adopted a name for themselves, went on to challenge for the World Tag Team Championship at Wrestlemania, the same night John was set to defend his Northern Shores Championship against rival, Loatar, and his Southern Shores Title in a Best of Three Fall Match. Kaos would eventually lose his singles title after interference from Shifty Bradley, but win the Tag Titles later that night and get a measure of revenge as Shifty Bradley and Matt Villas were one of the other teams in the fight. Dope & Kaos held onto the titles for only a month and a half before being stripped of them due to a federation shut down, and were considered one of the most underrated tag teams of the company's history. After another reboot of the promotion, a new booker was put in place with a slimmed down roster. With Dan Shoryu as the new Heavyweight Champion, there was a power struggle and the booker, who was not a huge backer of John Kaos, opted to put the title on him rather than Dan as a means of showing his authority. This happened yet again after Rainer Crimson was claiming he should be more than just the Japanese Deathmatch Champion, a title who's history had not existed in a long time and some questioned if it ever really did. Crimson got his title match, having to put his "title" on the line as well, and lost. Dope & Kaos still had possession of their tag titles as nothing yet had been done, and that left John with three championships at once: The World Heavyweight Title, the Japanese Deathmatch Title, and the Tag Team Title. Thaddius eventually came back to reboot the promotion one more time, and vacated Kaos' World Title and Tag Team Titles officially. The result was John Kaos versus Simon Dope for the World Heavyweight Title in the promotion's second ever Highway Match, where the two battle in an 18-wheel cargo rig. The match, which eventually broke free from the cargo haul and ensued in a vacant portion of the highway, eventually ended with John Kaos as the victor, but that was because of Simon Dope willingly giving up the win and the championship for whatever reason (although believed to be repayment for the year before when John willingly put his title on the line against Dope when requested, but cannot be proven). It was around this time that John, who had been looked at as the weight-bearer of RCWF, rejoined Team We Own You. Awards called the "Slammies" were given out towards the beginning of summer for the year before, with John taking most of the accomplishments including Babyface of the Year, Feud of the Year, Headlining PPV of the Year, Finisher of the Year, and Rookie of the Year (much of which was publically objected by Dan Shoryu). Normally, the overall Wrestler of the Year is decided between whoever the Veteran and Rookie of the Year are, and most believed that John would win the award after successfully climbing to the main event status in such a short period of time and maintaining his spot while establishing his legitimacy as a long-standing talent. The award, however, went to Krow who had returned for a short Heavyweight Title run towards the beginning of the year. During the summer of 2002, John started to slow down for a break towards the end of the summer due to nagging injuries and working a busy schedule with the promotion, receiving a lose from the new monster Brandon Peters before quietly leaving the shows for a small backstage role until October, where he returned on Halloween. It was the first ever Triple Tier Cage Match, with the Universal Trophy at the top for the winner. By this time, a three-branded split of the promotion was established but slowly being done away with due to inactivity but established two new heavyweight stars in Shifty Bradley, then Universal Heavyweight Champion, and Roz. Those two were in the match, along with Kaos, Thaddius, Lunar and a man in a Michael Myers get-up. Most of the match was deemed a large horror show, as Roz somehow disappeared after a short "power-outage," and both Thaddius and Lunar were "impaled" by Myers with their careers in question. The duo of Shifty and Kaos then double teamed Myers, utilizing a lot of their tactics including an air horn and a version of the Van Shiftinator to launch Myers from the second tier of the cage to the floor. Then it came down to the partners to do battle, where John eventually got the better of his friend and became the only Universal Trophy Winner in Thad Inc. history. This, however, would lead to a bit of confusion. Shifty would lose his Universal Championship to Krow, and Krow would then become inactive for whatever reason and Thaddius thereby declared himself the new Champion. A dispute was made over which was superior, the Trophy or the Title, which led to a Winner-Takes-All Match between Thaddius and Kaos, a year after their previous feud ended. The match was deemed an "Ultimate Reversal" Match where much of the restrictions on how you could work on the mat were done away with, and often deemed by Kaos as a precursor to the "Purist Rules" concept. In a grueling technical bout, John came away as the Heavyweight Champion for the fourth time since joining Thad Inc., but suffered a left knee injury in the process that he would have to work through slowly. His title reign continued through December, where he lost the championship for a week to Loatar but regained it after envoking his rematch clause. It was around this time that John began to lean more towards a bad-guy persona, often expressing his interest in becoming a heel in the promotion, but it was soon nixed as a series of challengers were created with nothing but established heel characters. His last run as a heel was a defense against Jake Michaels at Snowbrawl. At the 2003 Royal Rumble, John made it towards the final five with Shifty Bradley, Matt Villas, Babu and Roz before being eliminated. The odd part of this was that the five fought it out with one another for a good fifteen minutes, where there were two remaining entrants to come out. Kaos was eliminated, then it was announced that Jake Michaels, a returning Krow, and a returning Thaddius were the final three, taking a fifty man battle royal to having fifty-one participants. The three turned around and eliminated the previous four from the match, then fought amongst themselves until Thaddius was declared the winner in quite possibly the biggest "Screw Job" in Thad Inc. history where Team We Own You were the primary targets. This lead to a large disapproval backstage throughout many on the roster that only got worse. By then, another Slammy awards ceremony came about where John's partner, Shifty Bradley, cleaned up much like last year. John took home the Veteran of the Year award but it ended up being Shifty Bradley who won the Wrestler of the Year. When asked about this, Thaddius made it clear John "would never be Wrestler of the Year, as it would be giving him too much." John, at this point, was still the Heavyweight Champion. Still wanting to go heel, he was put in a last minute Cage Match against Sean Gotti, a relative unknown even though he had spent time in the promotion, on a regular show. As Team We Own You came down for an assist to help John retain, it was announced mid-way through the match of a change in the rules after Kaos was helped from the cage. The match was restarted, Team We Own You were banned from ringside, and Gotti went on to win the match and the title. The aftermath was a riot-like atmosphere as many believed John was screwed over by then booker for the evening, Jake Michaels, who had Thaddius in his ear. The oddest thing was how John and Team We Own You reacted, which was considered "respectful" to the new champion compared to everyone else. Gotti offered to return the title which was denied by Kaos, and unfortunately the federation went on yet another hiatus. It was after this that John made management aware he had no intentions of returning and thereby looked for work in the Big East. BECW The end of winter of 2003, the next stop would be Roy Ferris' Big East Championship Wrestling, an independent promotion but oftentimes looked at as the farm federation for HPWF. John changed his look for here, turning his black hair blonde, gaining a tan and wrestling in colorful tights rather than the baggier ring gear from RCWF. He even opted to change his hometown from Dallas to Huntington Beach, attempting to become wrestling's variation of Tito Ortiz. His attitude, however, remained the same if not more amplyfied. Once again, John lost his debut match in the promotion which included a big scare that he had seriously reinjured his left knee, but began to get attention. There were many changes made to his style, developing a grounded MMA game and began to utilize his original finisher, the Hangman's Piledriver, due to the overall smaller roster while he still utilized his RCWF finisher, the KFX: a loose front-side full nelson into a STO. It would not take long before Shifty and R. B. joined John in BECW to reform Team We Own You. The trio began to gain a lot of favoritism after many believed they were going to seem like too big of egomaniacs for BECW's own good. Their time in the Big East was considered a "humbling experience" by the group as it took away a lot of the restrictions and they could do whatever they felt, developing the group dynamic even further with quite a few matches and promos that reminded people of how they were originally. The Bradleys quickly moved into Tag Division with a feud with the champion team of Milano Collection A. T. and Ryuu Sakamoto, the Italian Connection. John, meanwhile, found a place in the 2003 King of New York Tournament which included a ladder match win over Ryuu and a semi-final loss to Sweet T via a flame-thrower. The finish on pay-per-view sparked some heated reactions from Kaos, but eventually turned him into what would become a persona that probably ended up taking his career to the next level. After King of New York, John declared himself the last true "wrestler" in the sport and vowed to "out-wrestle" anyone, having a no-nonsense demeanor in the ring. This was shown in a #1 Contender's Match against the reigning King of New York, Sean Kryle, where Kaos unleashed his bigger moves first to take Kryle out of his game and pin him abruptly. At the following pay-per-view, John battled the reigning champion, Naoki Tomazawa, and defeated him for the New England Heavyweight Championship, making him the fourth man to hold both the BECW Heavyweight and the RCWF Heavyweight Title behind Chris Craven, the Baron and Lunar. In his first title defense, John Kaos battled Reckless Youth, a long standing member of the Big East, in a very one-sided match. Possibly the stand out moments were that no matter what John did in the ring to his opponent, Reckless Youth (also known as Tom Carter) would not stay down. It eventually went to the point that John had to use a Hangman's Piledriver through the commentator's table to defeat Reckless. The match served as a stand-point of what John was willing to do to remain champion and also set the stage for a long, long future rivalry. Kaos endured a four month reign as Champion, the longest in promotion history and deemed himself the "Most Dominating Heavyweight Champion Ever." He would wrestle in non-title bouts on most shows, where if defeated would then defend the title again. He only had five title defenses, including against Reckless Youth and his partner, Chris Venom. Fall of 2003, as Roy Ferris stepped away from his duties and left both Dean Ripley and the Baron as the bookers, began what became known as the "Road to Fear." The concept would be that challengers would be put in front of Kaos. If they beat him, they would then be put into a large multi-man match with the title on the line. The original design was for Kaos, who was turning into a large babyface due to his reign as champion, to really be challenged by Venom from HPWF in what most looked at as the first real RCWF v. HPWF Match. Unfortunately, the new booking staff hot-shotted the match and Venom lost. John made it clear how upset he was with the decision to move the match up and lose a large story with it, but it only got worse. Many potential challengers were thrown in at the last minute with zero build up towards a future and John was defeating them all, giving himself no challengers for the pay-per-view. Then at a last minute change in the show, John was set to fight twice in the show, one of the matches included the Baron who had been inactive for months. Defeating both opponents, John went into the next week in a tag team match, teaming with R. B. Bradley to face Mike Awesome and the Baron. If Kaos were to lose, both the Baron and Awesome would be in the match. While Kaos didn't personally lose, R. B. was pinned and the match turned into a three way. When the pay-per-view "Fear" came around, though, neither man showed and Roy Ferris took control back. With no challengers present as the show was going on, the match was set to be scrapped. Ferris, not sure what had really gone on, opted that Kaos could go with the original stipulation and make a choice: defend the title against an opponent he picked or have the night off. The end result was John choosing to defend against, of all people, Reckless Youth. What happened was a far better overall match compared to the first, going back and forth until Carter eventually picked up the win and his first Heavyweight Title with a Northern Lights Bomb. There have been many questions and rumors as to what exactly happened, but the end result was that even with the loss, John had got the attention of a lot of people and set up his future in HPWF. A friendly rivalry between Reckless and Kaos continued, with a return title match on the Anarchy weekly event where the two proceeded to attack guest commentator CID™, who could be heard putting himself over at the expense of the two in the ring. Cid returned the favor, coming in to get Kaos disqualified. After a one-hour Ironman Match ending in a draw with Shaun Callen, Reckless granted Kaos one more match. As to avoid any further DQ finishes, Kaos officially developed the "Purist Rules" concept, a match designed to test who is the better wrestler with a strict count on the floor and doing away with rope breaks all together. Reckless, one more time, would prove to be the victor and Kaos thereby made it clear he would not challenge for the Heavyweight Title as long as Reckless was the Champion. The next big pay-per-view would be Genesis, where teams of four battled one another to earn spots in a final battle royal, where the winner received a title shot. Team We Own You consisted of Kaos, the Bradley Brothers and Michael Crowe, who was unable to make it to the event and was replaced with Jessika Reidel. Their opponents ended up being Reckless Youth and his team of Milano Collection A. T., the Baron, and Shaun Callen. Team We Own You picked up the win with all but R. B. advancing to the Battle Royal, even though Jessika was not present for the contest. Both John and Shifty were eliminated quickly by the Army of Darkness. Throughout most of 2004 in BECW, the group moved up in rank: R. B. was the Anarchist Champion, Crowe was the Middleweight Champion, and Kaos and Shifty had a reign as Tag Team Champions. However, Ferris once again left for personal reasons and Kaos was now the booker. The original concept was to have R. B., who gained quite a bit of popularity from his Anarchist Title Matches and having the Feud of the Year with his brother against the Italian Connection in 2003, face off against Ryuu Sakamoto, believed to be one of the best workers in the company. The feud however never really took off due to the champion being the 2004 King of New York and Dean Ripley's pet project, Damien Dragon, who's overall work-rate was lazy at best. John opted to leave the company and commit full-time to HPWF. The Dead Presidents Around Spring/Summer in 2003, RCWF had reestablished under a different name and continued with the "screw job" finishes, one victim being Shifty Bradley yet again. As a means of revenge, John and Shifty adopted a gimmick based on the movie "Dead Presidents," even using that as their name. Both wore rubber makses, painted white with black, round eyes and an all black body gear to the ring. Going by "Nixon" and "Kennedy," the team started to work up the ranks and got some favoritsm, being unable to really capture the titles until the very end of that promotion's run. It's often looked at as a joke on Team We Own You when you consider Thaddius' strict policy against outsiders and his recent claims that Team We Own You stabbed him in the back. HPWF While